On the 9th day ...

. . . well my accounting of yesterday:

Christmas tree purchased
lights put on
decorated
living room rearranged

Not done:
binding on quilt

I could not believe how easy it was to get our tree this year.  Sometimes it is good to wait until the last minute; we never buy our Christmas tree until our son comes home from college.  We went to the tree farm to cut our tree down ... it was pretty bare ... most of the trees were gone.  We looked at two trees and picked the second one we found ... we had cut the tree down and were hauling it to the desk to pay in about 15 minutes.  We usually take at least twice this long because there are 4 people in our family and we are all stubborn and have our own opinions on the best tree.  Everyone has to look at each tree, walking around it and checking all sides.  It's hilarious ... we always argue about it.

We came home and got it all set up and the hole the guys had drilled in the bottom to make it straight was right on.  Well, it leaned a little, but my brilliant daughter decided to just put a small book under one of the legs and wa-la ... even!  It's a beautiful tree and it smells so good!  I love that it is tall, but not too fat ... usually we get a fuller tree, but I'm liking the narrower one.  I bought some new lights this year and they were on a roll ... its genius I tell you!  It was the easiest to put on the tree because they were all wound on this big spool and it kept it all straight.  I found them at Target.  Then I got down the 5 boxes or ornaments; usually it looks like Christmas has thrown up on our tree with all the decorations we have.  I usually have a little tree in the hall that has its own ornaments, but because that tree broke last year and I didn't replace it (because I forgot it broke until I went to look for it a couple of weeks ago!), I had an extra box of ornaments to go on the already crowded tree ... so I picked the ones that are dated and the special ornaments, and left quite a bit in the boxes.  I have decided that in order to use all our ornaments, I need two more trees!  One for the hall and one for our family room. 

Doesn't it look beautiful??  I love it ... can't believe I got it all done in one day ... it usually takes a couple days to get it all decorated.  I think it was because the rest of the house was done, and I was only working on the tree.  My daughter put about 3 ornaments on, and I did everything else.  It's just the way it is in our house.